Native Environmental Sovereignty Project

Examining emerging tribal roles in co-managing lands and resources

The Native Environmental Sovereignty Project explores the intersection of tribal sovereignty with the protection of tribal natural resources. Faculty leaders are Rennard Strickland and Mary Wood.

NESP News

26th Annual Public Interest Environmental Law Conference: Compelling a Climate of Change , March 2008.
Keynotes: Carrie Dann, Western Shoshone Defense Project; William Rodgers, University of Washington Law Professor; Sophia Rabliauskas, Poplar River First Nation.
Panels: Culvert Case: Implications for the Future
Follow the Yellowcake Road: Updates on the Uranium Mining and Milling Boom
Indigenous Sacred Estates: Protecting the Climate at Home; Tribal Wilderness Land and Conservation Easements
Offshore Oil Exploration, Inupiat Eskimos and Environmental Justice
Makah Whaling Controversy
NAFTA's Assault on Sacred Lands and the Environment
Native Environmental Justice
Exxon Valdez Legacy
Tribes as Trustees: The Emerging Role in the Global Conservation Trust Movement
The Forgotten Costs of Oil Industry in Alaska
Experiences of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe
Films: Teachings of the Tree People, Baked Alaska, Homeland, Shadow of the Salmon.

Unveiling of a portrait of Chief Joseph, February 1, 2008. The portrait, a labor of love by artist James Gronsand, was honored in an unveiling ceremony by the words of Dean Margie Paris, Professor Dom Vetri, Professor Mary Wood, Arnold Eyle of the Yakama Nation, and ENR Fellow Hillary Renick. The portrait will be on loan to the University of Oregon School of Law for two years.

(Left to Right) David Liberty, Mary Wood, James Gronsand, Arnold Elye, Hillary Renick, Margie Paris, Dom Vetri

ENR Fellow Hillary Renick

Annual Rennard Strickland Lecture Series, September 21, 2007, Professor Mary Wood, "EPA's Protection of Tribal Harvests: Braiding the Agency's Mission"

Cherokee Nation History Course, September 7-9, 2007 and September 21-24, 2007

"Tribes as Trustees Again: The Emerging Tribal Role in the Global Conservation Trust Movement," Workshop, April 6, 2007

NESP Fellows

Santi Alston

Santi Alston is a second year student. Before law school, Santi worked at Northwest Indian College, a tribal college in Washington state chartered by the Lummi Nation. Santi has a M.Ed. in student services from Western Washington University and a B.A. in Comparative Religion from the University of Washington.

Erin Farris

Erin Farris is a third year student. During the summer of 2009, Erin worked at the Indian Law Resource Center in Helena, Montana where she focused on a Conservation Handbook that seeks to increase collaboration between Tribes and the conservation community. She also researched regulatory mechanisms for tribes to exercise sovereignty under federal environmental regulations in an effort to curb oil and gas development both on and off reservation lands. In 2008, Erin worked as a legal intern for Green Advocates in Monrovia Liberia developing access to justice tool kits for communities affected by rapid development projects in the post civil war climate. When not at the law school, Erin spends her time with her loving chocolate labrador "Mr. Dukems" and coaching the University of Oregon Speech and Debate team.

Teresa Jacobs

Teresa Jacobs is a third year law student at the University of Oregon. Between her first and second years of law school, Teresa worked for Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers and his special counsel to address issues impacting Oregon's tribes, including tribal gaming, state public health laws, and environmental concerns. Prior to law school, Teresa worked at the New Mexico Department of Health where she was responsible for developing and implementing violence prevention programs with tribes. Teresa has a BA from Emory University in political science and an MPH from the University of Minnesota in community health education.

Naomi Rowden

Naomi Rowden is a third year law student and concurrent degree student in the Conflict and Dispute Resolution master's program. During the summer of 2009, Naomi worked at the Crag Law Center in Portland, Oregon doing public interest environmental law, with most of her work contributing to ongoing litigation for Inupiat communities in the North Slope of Alaska working to protect their traditional subsistence hunting and whaling grounds from offshore oil and gas drilling. During 2008, Naomi worked in Eugene, Oregon with the Native Forest Council to protect old growth native forests from clear-cutting and excessive logging. Naomi has a B.A. in philosophy from the University of Washington and would like to practice environmental law on behalf of Tribes upon graduation.

Faculty

Rennard Strickland

Mary Wood